Obama Under Fire From Supporters

President Obama is facing mounting criticism from many who have, in the past, been optimistic about the president's policies.

The New York Times Editorial Board on Sunday complained, "We did not expect that Mr. Obama...would be sending such confused and mixed signals from the White House" on the issues of terrorism, prisoners, and the rule of law.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman who has frequently criticized Mr. Obama didn't even wait for the administration's new bank plan announcement before panning it. "It's exactly the plan that was widely analyzed — and found wanting — a couple of weeks ago... I fear when the plan fails, as it almost surely will, the administration will have shot its bolt."

Columnist Maureen Dowd cited Michelle Obama's get-down-to-work attitude that left Dowd wondering "if the wrong Obama is in the Oval."

While the administration is pushing hard to find and fund more sources for renewable energy, California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein is saying "not in my back-desert."

Even though California's Mojave Desert might seem ideally suited for solar and wind energy production, concern over how the facilities might look is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop solar and wind facilities in the desert. Feinstein said Friday such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public.

Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has previously weighed in on the public battle complaining, "If we cannot put solar power plants in the Mojave Desert, I don't know where the hell we can put [them]."

Put It on Ice

And a new paper in the journal Nature provides an estimated time frame for the loss of Antarctic ice that its authors say should provide some comfort for those concerned about the rise in sea levels.

Based on computer simulations using data on past climate and ocean conditions, the loss of the West Antarctic ice from warming is appearing "more likely a definite thing to worry about on a thousand-year time scale but not a hundred years."

Over all, the pace of sea-level rise from the resulting ice loss doesn't go beyond about 1.5 feet per century, the research showed.